I Awakened The Ancient Vampire System

Chapter 86: Chapter 86: El-Wahat

El-Wahat was a ghost city.

The vehicle dropped them five kilometers from the settlement’s perimeter. From there, the three of them moved on foot through the desert darkness. The ruins emerged slowly from the sand — half-swallowed buildings, collapsed minarets, streets buried under dunes that shifted with every wind. What had once been a thriving desert town was now a skeleton picked clean by time and neglect.

Lucian, Declan, and Amira wore dark clothing from head to toe. Masks covering everything below the eyes. No identifiers. No academy emblems. No Knight insignias. Just three shadows moving through darker shadows.

Amira took the lead as the group’s leader. She seemed to know the environment quite well.

"There’s a back route through the eastern residential block," she whispered, her voice barely carrying in the still desert air. "The buildings are close together. Good cover. Patrols don’t go through there because the structures are too unstable."

They followed her through narrow alleys where sand piled waist-high against crumbling walls. Lucian’s boots crunched softly on debris. Declan moved silently behind him despite his relaxed posture. Amira navigated by memory, turning left, right, left again, until they emerged on a low rooftop overlooking the rebel base.

The central compound dominated the settlement. A three-story building that had once been a government administrative center, now reinforced with scrap metal, sandbag walls, and crude watchtowers at each corner. Lanterns hung from the watchtowers, casting pools of yellow light across the dusty ground.

Rebels moved between the compound and the surrounding buildings. Some carried weapons. Others hauled supplies. A few sat around fires, eating and talking in low voices.

Lucian’s eyes flickered gold. Eyes of the Eternals activated alongside heartbeat sense with his senses at the maximum.

The world shifted. Golden light overlaid his vision, highlighting every living signature within range. Heartbeats pulsed like soft beacons. Mana signatures glowed with varying intensities — dim for the weak, bright for the strong.

He counted quickly. One hundred and twelve rebels spread across the compound and surrounding buildings. Ninety-eight were Neophyte realm — mostly Early and Mid stage, with a scattering of Late. Their signatures were faint, barely visible against the background noise of the ruined city.

Then the brighter ones.

Three Core Realm signatures. All inside the central compound.

Two of them were standard Early Core Realm — steady glows, nothing remarkable. But the third was different. Brighter and denser. The mana signature pulsed with a pressure that made the other two look like candles beside a bonfire.

Early Core Realm at the peak stage. Almost Mid Core.

Lucian swept his vision across the entire compound. Every room. Every corner. Every shadow.

No children.

He frowned. Deactivated his eyes as the golden glow faded.

"The children aren’t in the compound," he said quietly.

Amira turned. "What?"

"I scanned the entire area. One hundred and twelve hostiles. Three Core Realm cultivators inside the main building. No children anywhere in the compound or the surrounding structures."

Declan leaned in. "You scanned all of that in less than a minute?"

Lucian didn’t respond to the question. "They could be underground. Hidden rooms. Basements that my vision can’t penetrate through solid stone at this range. Or they could be in a completely different location."

"If they’re underground, we’d need to get inside the compound to find them," Amira said. "That could take hours of searching. Time we don’t have if patrols discover us."

"Then we ask," Lucian said.

"Ask who?"

"The people inside. Someone will know where the kids are. If we kill the useless ones and capture a few rebels, we can get answers fast."

Amira shook her head. "We’re supposed to neutralize, not kill. Captured rebels can be sent to prison. The Egyptian government wants—"

"If people take up arms and kill others, they should be prepared to be killed," Lucian said. "There’s no rule saying we can’t. We need the bosses alive for information. The rest are useless."

Declan shrugged. "He’s not wrong. We’re not here to play police. We’re here to get the kids and take out the leadership. Everything else is collateral."

Amira stared at both of them. Her jaw tightened. Then she exhaled through her nose.

"Fine. But we neutralize first. Kill only if necessary."

"Agreed," Lucian said. He didn’t mean it.

"Before we go in," Declan said, "what can you two do? So we don’t trip over each other."

"Blood manipulation and light control," Lucian said.

"Plant manipulation," Amira said. "Vines, roots, toxins. I can also sense plant life in a radius, which helps with mapping."

Declan grinned. "S-Rank Golden Body. Exponentially increases all my physical stats when activated. Strength, speed, durability, everything. I’m basically a walking tank."

Lucian filed that away. S-Rank physical enhancement at Core Realm would make Declan a monster in close combat.

"I’ll infiltrate from the west," Lucian said. "I’ll take out the outer patrols silently and create an opening. You two follow once the path is clear."

Amira nodded. Declan cracked his knuckles.

Lucian moved.

Phantom Walk carried him off the rooftop in a flicker of semi-transparency. He landed silently on the sand below and activated Light Prism, bending the dim light around his body until he was nearly invisible — not perfect invisibility, but enough to fool eyes that weren’t looking for him.

The first patrol was two Neophyte rebels walking the western perimeter. Late Neophyte at best. Lucian circled behind them and struck — two precise strikes to the back of each neck with blood-hardened palms. Their bodies dropped without a sound.

Two down.

He moved deeper. A rebel standing watch near a collapsed wall. Lucian’s blood claw severed his spine before the man could turn. Three.

A cluster of four rebels sitting around a fire. Lucian created a Blood Needle Rain — just eight needles, aimed at throat and spine. They hit simultaneously. Four bodies slumped. Seven.

He cleared the western approach in under four minutes. Fourteen rebels eliminated without a single sound. The path to the compound was open.

Amira and Declan moved through the gap he’d created. They were fast and quiet.

Then Declan stepped on something.

Crack.

A piece of debris snapped under his boot. The sound was small — barely audible — but in the dead silence of the ruined city, it carried.

A rebel thirty meters away turned his head. His eyes widened.

"Intrud—"

Lucian’s Light Blade severed his throat before the word finished. The body dropped. But the damage was done.

Shouts erupted from the compound. Lanterns flared. Rebels poured out of buildings like ants from a kicked nest.

"Shit," Declan muttered.

Amira’s hands were already glowing green. Vines erupted from the sand beneath the rushing rebels, tangling legs and tripping bodies.

"Well," Declan said, rolling his shoulders. Golden light began emanating from his skin — S-Rank Golden Body activating. His muscles bulged. His presence expanded. "Guess we’re doing it this way."

Over a hundred rebels charged toward them from every direction.

The night erupted.